Authoritarian States: The Emergence of Nazi Germany

all right we're going to get back at it today with the rise of authoritarianism now in Germany and we'll start talking about the conditions that give rise to the eventual uh takeover of Germany by Adolf Hitler and we start with World War One the defeat in World War one of the German Army while they were still in France would leave many German soldiers and other German nationalists disillusioned with the end of that war nationalists and Veterans would accuse the November criminals those politicians

that ultimately signed the surrender of stabbing Germans in the back and the punitive dictat as they referred to the Treaty of Versailles this dictated treaty would go further to to grow animosities against this new government in Germany and against the Treaty of Versailles remember Germany was forced to give up territory and they lost 4 million German citizens to neighboring countries Germany would lose its Empire higher Germany would lose its military Germany had to sign the war guilt clause and Germany was forced to pay Financial

reparations to the victors of the war that contributes to the negative economic factors that will lead to authoritarianism in Germany the need to pay War debts the need to pay the reparations will spark an inflation crisis in Germany that grows even worse in 1923 following the rur crisis where Germany had missed reparations payments the rural region of West Germany was invaded and occupied by France and and Belgium and the German government continued to print German marks to pay the workers that were on strike during

this war crisis this exacerbates an inflation problem uh to the point of hyperinflation in Germany now the economic problems get worse in the late 1920s with the Great Depression the United States will withdraw its loans to Germany and high unemployment as high as 30 percent by 1932 will be made worse by Weimar Republic protectionism now that Weimar Republic that government of Germany after World War one will also contribute to the conditions that lead to the rise of Nazi Germany the Weimar Constitution called for an election of a

president every seven years and at times of National Emergency that President could rule by decree the chancellor of Germany the head of government was appointed by the president leaving that president with tremendous political power the reichstag the legislative body of Germany had seats that were gained through proportional representation essentially seats were distributed to different parties based on the percentage of votes those parties received in national elections this would make it difficult for any single

party to control the government resulting in a number of more unstable Coalition governments and rule by Presidential decree political violence was also a feature of Germany in the 19 teens and 20s the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 would Inspire communist movements in many other European nations in Germany this was called the Spartacus League in response to those communist movements right-wing nationalist ex-soldiers would form paramilitary organizations in Germany like the Fry Corps that resisted

the growing influence of communist parties in Germany the Nazi party itself orchestrated a violent attempt to overthrow the government in November of 1923 called The Beer Hall pooch Adolf Hitler though needs to be Central to any discussion of the rise of authoritarianism in Germany Hitler became political following the defeat of Germany in World War One deeply anti-semitic he believed that Communists and Jewish people in Germany were working together to undermine the German culture and Society he became a member of the German Workers

Party and later that party's name became the National Socialist German Workers Party and he helped write this Nazi party platform this platform featured ideas of nationalism and socialism it was racialist it was anti-semitic it was anti-democratic the program called for the unification of all German people what was referred to as gross Deutschland that all the German people of Europe should be in one country this would include Austria this would include lands that Germany lost during the Treaty of Versailles it would

call for the overturning the revocation of the Treaty of Versailles it would call for the acquisition of land through um through the labens realm program gaining new territory for Germany's growing population it would call for a citizenship for all ethnic Germans and denial of citizenship for Jews now this Nazi party would absolutely use force in its attempt to rise the brown shirts the Nazi parties paramilitary organization known as the sa would use violence towards any opposition like Communists and Jews and support uh party

uh party membership and party growth in 1923 Adolf Hitler and Eric ludendorf leaders of the Nazi party would call on their essay their paramilitary organization to attempt to violently overthrow the government in Munich Germany this beer hall pooch in Munich was put down pretty quickly by the Bavarian police and Hitler would be arrested but ultimately given a light sentence this would lead to the the violence of the Nazi party toning down in the aftermath of the push now Hitler's uh prison sentence resulted

in the development of his book known as Mein Kampf my struggle which would lay out his ideology and goals ideology that centered on the political division between Germans and Jews and nationalists in Germany and Communists believe that German Destiny could only be that of an Aryan Nation this this northern European Caucasian state that would destroy International jewry it was an anti-communist as well now Hitler's propaganda organized by Joseph Goebbels in the 1920s would depict Adolf Hitler as a strong German

leader that was the man needed to return Germany to its great power status use of media in film and radio along with traditional posters and newspaper columns modern Transportation the railroad and airplanes to quickly move between German cities to uh to give political rallies Goebbels was so successful he would later be named the minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany now in the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression the Nazi party's percentage of votes in those proportional elections would grow with

no party though receiving majority elections so weak Coalition governments had to be established this left the president Hindenburg to rule by decree now Adolf Hitler as the largest uh as the leader of the largest party in Germany wanted to be the chancellor of Germany Hindenburg offered him a vice chancellorship under uh German Chancellor franzan poppin but Hitler declined that only wanting that Chancellor position he would run in 1932 for president against Hindenburg he would lose but his success in that election his votes in

that election would prove that Hitler and the Nazi party did have wide support amongst the populace leading ultimately in January of 1933 for Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor of Germany it was hoped that the Nazis were too weak to challenge the traditional rule of Weimar Germany but it would allow him to gain support of of anti-communists in the right-wing Elite Germans and Hitler will then take the move from Chancellor to president in our next discussion we'll talk to you later